A Ship in an Airport
by ButtButtDoodle
Summary: "Loving someone who doesn't love you is like waiting for a ship in an airport." Sakura is sick so she asks her best friend Naruto for a favor. What's a guy to do when the love-of-his-life asks him to pick up her CRUSH at the airport, in the middle of the night, no less? Fuck his luck. / One-sided NaruSaku, eventual SasuNaru. Maybe. Rated T for language.
1. The Favor

Prompt: "My roommate is too sick to come and pick you up at the airport in the middle of the night."

Pairing: NaruSaku, SasuNaru

Genre: AU, Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy

"Loving someone who doesn't love you,

is like waiting for a ship in an airport."

Anonymous

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!"

"Please Naruto! I'm begging you!" Sakura cried; her voice crackly through the phone's static.

"Go beg to someone who actually cares!" he growled back savagely, gritting his teeth as he shot a man between the eyes.

"There _is_ no one else!" she sobbed.

Naruto sighed loudly as he shot another zombie, but he could already feel himself caving. Pressing a button on his controller and pausing the video game, he smiled sardonically at the phone.

"You are so fucking dramatic, you know that?" Naruto ground out between his teeth. He dropped the control on the carpeted floor and maneuvered the phone from his shoulder to his hand, relieving the tense pose. "Sakura, it's almost midnight. Why in God's name do I need to do this for you? And why can't you go pick him up yourself? Ain't he your boyfriend?"

"He is not my boyfriend!" she screeched, and Naruto grinned broadly, imagining the bright blush on her cheeks. "And I already told you, Naruto. I'm sick." As if on cue, the girl on the other line began coughing violently. Naruto winced. He'd heard Sakura fake some coughing fits before to get out of things, like work or handing in late projects. But he knew her well enough to know this one sounded genuine. Naruto mildly remembered her having a leaky nose yesterday when they left work.

"I don't think I'm well enough to drive. I can barely walk." She continued miserably.

Naruto sighed and leaned back against the sofa. Well, there went his Friday night. "I don't know, Sakura. The guy might be weirded out, he doesn't even know me. I mean, wouldn't it be creepy to have a total stranger pick you up at the airport?"

"Oh, you wouldn't be a stranger. I talk about you all the time."

"You do?" Naruto asked, feeling a goofy grin tugging at the corners of his lips. "Damn, Sakura, I had no idea you felt like that."

"Oh don't flatter yourself, Uzumaki." Sakura's staticky voice snapped over the line, and Naruto did smile fully then. She coughed again and then sneezed twice in a row. Sakura groaned. "Ugh, I feel like shit."

"Don't worry, you sound like shit too."

"Gee, thanks Naruto." She sniffed. "Look, I know this is a huge favor to ask, but I've been planning this reunion with him for months now. He's going to be expecting somebody to be there when he comes out of the terminal. All you have to do is pick him up at the airport, maybe buy him some dinner and then let him crash at your place. Then tomorrow morning, you can drop him off at my house. Easy-peasy."

 _Easy-peasy, my ass_ , Naruto grumbled. That sounded like more trouble than it was worth. He wasn't even getting anything out of this deal. If it had been a cute girl he was picking up, then Naruto would've already been in his car and halfway there.

But a dude… _ugh_. Plus, a dude that Sakura seemed to have a major thing for? _Double UGH_.

Naruto couldn't bring himself to deny Sakura anything, though. It had been like that ever since their first year in college. The moment that Naruto had laid eyes on the perky, pink-haired girl, it was all over for him. He was caught in her beauty, her grace, her everything.

But as soon as he'd walked up to her and talked it had been a disaster. Like water and oil, Sakura and Naruto repelled each other with a ferocity that defied logic. They fought and bickered over every little thing, yet Naruto came back for more with a masochistic zeal that was downright unhealthy. The pink-haired student rejected him time after time, and Naruto eventually gave up trying to court the angry woman.

It all turned out for the best though, because she soon turned into one of his best friends, if not his only one. Looking back on it now, Naruto couldn't even believe he had ever looked at her as anything more than a sister figure. He adored the girl, who in turn spoiled and chided him like a doting mother.

And after all the shit Sakura had put up with last year with Naruto's family…well…

He owed her BIG TIME.

Sakura's weak plea interrupted Naruto's reminiscing.

"Please, Naruto. I would _really_ appreciate it…"

The blonde sighed loudly. The puppy-dog voice? Really? Oh for the love of-

"Fine, Sakura. I'll do it." He gave in, rolling his eyes.

Naruto pulled the phone away as a girlish squeal resounded from the other line. "Thank you so much, Naruto! I love you, I love you, I love you!"

Naruto tried not to feel too pleased at her words, blushing slightly. So sue him, he still had a teeny-tiny crush on the girl. And he was was going to play cupid by picking up her Romeo. What a fucking joke.

"Yeah, yeah, you owe me, Haruno."

"You bet! Ramen at Ichiraku's."

"For an entire week."

Sakura grumbled something unintelligible.

"Then maybe someone else will have to do it-"

"Ok! Ok! Ramen for a week. God! Greedy asshole."

"I guess I'm going to the airport, then." Naruto smiled. He hung up the phone and grabbed the controller.

Just as soon as he was done with this level. The guy, whoever the hell he was, could fucking wait.


	2. If Assholes Could Fly

**A Ship In An Airport**

 **Chapter Two**

888

"If assholes could fly,

This town would be an airport."

888

Naruto grumbled, his hands deep in his pockets as he waited outside the airport terminal. Goddamit, it was colder than a penguin's pecker and if that guy didn't hurry his pretty-little ass outside Naruto was going to leave him, regardless of what Sakura would do to him later. Fuck loyalty, his balls were _cold_. The dude would just have to find a taxi or someone to give him a lift. Not like it would be hard to do with his good looks.

Naruto looked back at the picture on his cellphone, the face of the man he was waiting for flashing up at him. The blond felt himself frown, remembering the conversation in the car with his pink-haired friend.

Naruto had been on his way to the airport when he suddenly remembered he had no idea what the hell this guy even looked like. Slightly panicked, he called his friend Sakura and told her as much.

"Don't worry! I already told him you'd be there, and he knows how _you_ look!"

Naruto blinked at that. Just how much did Sakura talk about him? "Right…that's totally not weird…Look, just give me a description or something so I don't look like a total asshat when he comes up to me and I have no idea who he is-"

"I'll send you a pic!"

Naruto was about to protest when he heard a triumphant "There!" and his cellphone chimed. "Sent you a text. Try not to die of envy."

"I swear to God, Sakura, I'll turn this car around –"

"I'm joking, I'm joking! Pfft, don't go pretending you have a fragile ego, now. You know you're hot."

Naruto laughed. It was true, after all. "Nice recovery, Pinkie. Ok, thanks. Text you when I've got your boyfriend with me. Bye."

Naruto barely heard a "He's not my-" when he hung up, chuckling. Served her right for teasing him.

At a stoplight, he opened Sakura's text. As he waited for the photo to load, he wondered what kind of guy could get his Sakura this excited - he knew that Sakura had very high-standards when it came to looks. Not to say the girl was shallow but she was no deep pool, if you know what I mean. Finally, the picture uploaded.

Naruto promptly gasped.

Holy shit. He was fucking gorgeous. And it felt kind of weird to say that about another guy but _holy shit._

He was so ridiculously handsome in a way that pissed Naruto off that the blond could only gape angrily at his phone until someone honked behind him. The light had turned green. Naruto hit the gas, trying to outrun his shock.

Naruto didn't know that guys like him existed outside the catwalks. The picture, simple and candid as it was with the guy leaning back on a sofa, looked like a goddamn magazine spread. Naruto could still remember the dark, brooding eyes staring impassively at him from behind equally dark bangs. No wonder Sakura was smitten. His very essence, from his looks to how he held himself with such quiet confidence, was the very definition of 'cool' that Naruto had desperately tried to replicate his entire life but had never quite achieved. Naruto frowned, suddenly not so comfortable with the thought of this crazy-handsome dude staying over Sakura's house.

If this was his competition, Naruto was screwed.

Naruto passed the sign with the airplane printed on it, signaling he would be arriving to the airport soon enough. His blue eyes looked down at the clock on the dashboard before zipping back to the road. He was 10 minutes early. Perfect. Just in time to pick up the man that would steal away the love of his life.

His fingers tightened around the steering wheel, knuckles turning white.

Al right, so the guy was a bit hot, so what? Naruto would bet that he didn't know his Sakura half as well as he did! Did this Sasugay guy know that Sakura puffed up her cheeks like some adorable chipmunk whenever she was doing homework on her computer? Or that she loved eating scrambled eggs and white rice as comfort food, and that she swore up and down that Naruto was the best at doing this loved childhood plate (forget that it was the only plate Naruto knew how to make well, besides Ramen, obviously). Had he been present to witness all of Sakura's special moments during college like Naruto had? He doubted it. Naruto had the advantage here. He was the beloved friend that was always present, and that was way more important that good genetics and a perfectly symmetrical face.

Right?

Naruto maneuvered the car up the airport ramp and tried to find a spot on the side of the exit terminal, an easy feat at this time of night where there weren't so many boarding or arriving flights. He switched the gear to parked and waited, his car humming beneath him.

Naruto tried to look at the situation in a positive note. Fate had made Sakura sick, and now this Sasuke would have to go through Naruto first before getting to his beloved friend. Naruto wasn't into Sakura, that was old news, honest. He was just looking out for her. Guys like Sasuke, who were handsome and gave off the irresistible band of a brooding boyband member, were always trouble. He would break Sakura's heart, Naruto knew it. So if he could scare off this Sasuke guy, then Naruto had done his job as Sakura's Official Best Friend.

Naruto leaned back against his seat, staring up at the roof of the car.

The blond idiot wasn't sure how he was going to distract this man form trying to seduce the lovely pink-haired girl, but he was willing to do anything. Anything.

Naruto would soon come to regret those words, but as he lacked any psychic or clairavoyant abilities to tell the future, he sat back in his trusty Hyundai and plotted, not knowing the events that would come to pass soon.

* * *

AN: Hope you're all enjoying this silly little idea for now. Cheers! As always, feedback appreciated.


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